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There’s a new form of social media that’s growing in popularity – live streaming video using apps like Periscope and Meerkat. These apps allow anyone to broadcast live video from their phone over the Internet. Anyone using the app or Twitter can quickly tune in and participate. So, how does it work and why do I think it will be helpful for college ministry?
Let me first quickly say that Meerkat came first and then shortly after Periscope followed. Periscope is owned by Twitter and because of that I think it’s more likely for people to use it over Meerkat. In fact, they just reported that 1 million people signed up for Periscope in the first 1o days. Also, from what I can tell it has more features than Meerkat. For that reason and because I’ve chosen to only use Periscope, I’m going to be focusing on Periscope in this article.
This would get really long if I took time to explain how to use it so here’s a full tutorial on how to get started with Periscope. One thing I will say before we dive in is that with Periscope people can watch your video in real time or they can view it for up to 24 hours afterwards if you’ve turned that feature on in the settings.
So, here’s some ideas to get you started on using Periscope for your ministry:
Connecting over summer break
I especially wanted to tell you about this app now because I think it has some great applications for summer break. How often do you feel like you lose all momentum over the summer? Students come back and too often they now have to work through issues that they worked so hard to get freedom from the previous year. You could use Periscope to do weekly devotionals, provide encouragement or lead a short worship time.
Promoting meetings and events
During the school year you could do live broadcasts of your meetings or other fun events you’re running. And if you use the location settings it’s possible people on your campus that aren’t even following you might see what’s going on and come check it out.
Virtual Q&A
Students always have a lot of questions about life, the Bible and living for Christ in college. Each day they are bombarded by different ideologies and viewpoints. Offering an open ended Q&A or doing semi-frequent Q&A sessions based around themes will get students interested and help them regularly get a Biblical perspective.
Reminders
We’re always having to remind people of our events and meetings. Periscope offers a fun way to send out reminders and make sure people don’t miss out. If you provide a fun teaser of what you’ll be doing at your meeting or event it’s more likely to help you get students there.
Personal interviews
We all know people who our students would benefit from if they could just get around them and learn from them. But sometimes it can be hard if someone lives across the country or is really busy. You could do an interview with them when you’re visiting and ask questions specific to your audience or have them do their own broadcast and share the broadcast with your followers.
Those are just some ways you could use Periscope and live video for ministry. Sure, doing these types of things in person are always better, but we’re living in a technology driven culture and if your students are already going to be using Periscope why not provide them with encouraging and inspiring content?
I’ve been using it to do a weekly broadcast called Thursday Thoughts, which are short 5 minute teachings, devotionals, or words of encouragement. I also used it to show BASIC Live behind the scenes and our Hot Spot in Rochester.
If you choose to use it find me by searching for @chriszeigler and get connected to BASIC by following @theBASICcrew.
Have you been using Periscope or Meerkat? What do you think so far? Do you think this is something you could see your ministry using?
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